Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Lit. Review Article 4

Literature Review

Article 4

APA Citation: Pomplun, Mark (1988). Retention: The Earlier, the Better? Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 81, No. 5, 281-87. Retrieved from JSTOR database 31 July 2007.

I. Title: Retention: The Earlier, the Better? Journal

II. Author: Mark Pomplun

III. Author’s Purpose for Writing: To show that retention is more beneficial at the primary grades.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study? Research from higher grade levels suggested, that retention does not increase academic achievement for most students. Beginning at the fourth-grade level studies have found either no significant difference between retention and promotion or differences favoring promotion.

V. Author’s Inquiry Question: Is retention most effective at the primary level especially in comparison to the secondary level?

VI.
A. Author’s methodology: He used measures of self-concept, motivation, teacher, student, and parent attitudes; and reading, language and mathematics achievement.

B. Who is being studied? Students from first, second, third, fourth, seventh, and eight grades from a semirural area of west central Florida.

C. Over what length of time? 2 years

D. What data is being collected? Results from the Self-Concept and Motivation Inventory (SCAMIN) and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS).

VII. How the author collected information: by analyzing results from the Self-Concept and Motivation Inventory (SCAMIN) and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS).

VIII. What the author discovered:
•Retention as an educationally effective alternative decreases in utility as grade level increases.
•Parents, teachers and students agree on these findings that are also supported by student achievement test scores.
•The results of his study certainly suggest that further research is needed to ensure that student achievement is helped by retention and that we as educators are not wasting our tax dollars on retention at the higher grade levels.

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